Water diversion vs heritage protection
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-10-09 07:18

But nobody knows how many underground relics will be submerged by water.

A water conservancy expert participating in the investigation said it was really an urgent job to start the south-north water diversion project as the whole region of north China depends on over-exploitation of underground water resources for water supply.The water source for supply to the national capital of Beijing would dry up in a dozen of years if the situation continues.

According to him, the fund for cultural heritage protection of the water diversion project should be included in the total cost of the project, which is supported by financial resources of the central and local governments and bank loans.

However, many local governments concerned hold that cultural relics belong to the state and the cost of protection should be covered by the central government, he said.

As a result, when modernization meets ancient relics, the balance of favors leans to the former in today's China, a country where problems such as poverty and shortage of energy resources seem more urgent than cultural heritage protection.

But many Chinese have begun to worry that if the current trendspersist there will be too little cultural heritage left to future generations.

A similar problems came into being in the construction of the Three Gorges Project. Experts say the cultural heritage sites affected by the south-north water diversion project are much more valuable than those in the Three Gorges.

Chinese archaeologists say they are in a "golden age" since large-scale infrastructure construction throughout the country means increasing opportunities for archaeological excavations.

But archaeologists are ambivalent. They are happy that many great discoveries have been brought by the construction projects, but also worried about the inevitable damage that will be incurredby ancient relics.

The coming two decades will see more large-scale construction projects in China. Experts say China should sum up the experience in cultural heritage protection gained in undertaking large projects and seek a balance between development and the protectionof ancient history and culture.

"The south-north water diversion project will also become a site of human cultural heritage someday in the future," said renowned Chinese cultural heritage expert Xie Chensheng.

"The value of this future heritage depends on how much heritagewe preserve today," Xie said.